Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 84
How Loved Is Your Dwelling Place
Heading
For the choir director. According to gittith.[a] By the Sons of Korah.[b]
A psalm.
How Loved Is Your Dwelling Place
1 How I love your dwelling place, O Lord of Armies.
2 My soul grows weak and even wastes away,
as I long for the courtyards of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow has found a nest for herself,
where she may place her young near your altars,
O Lord of Armies, my King and my God.
The Blessings of Being There
4 How blessed are those who live in your house. Interlude
They are always praising you.
5 How blessed is everyone whose strength is found in you.
The highways to Jerusalem[c] are in their hearts.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,[d]
it becomes full of springs.[e]
The autumn rain also covers it with pools.[f]
7 They go from strength to strength.
Each one will appear before God in Zion.
17 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Consider this, and call for the wailing women.
Send for those who are the most skilled.
The People Mourn[a]
18 They should hurry and sob over us.
Our eyes will run with tears.
Our eyelids will stream with water.
19 The sound of sobbing is heard from Zion.
“We are ruined!
We are so ashamed!
We must leave our land
because they have torn down our dwellings.”
20 Listen to the word of the Lord, you women.
Pay attention to the word from his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to sob.
Each of you should teach her neighbor a lament.
21 Death has climbed in through a window
and entered our citadels.
It has taken away the children from the streets
and the young men from the city squares.
22 This is what the Lord says.
Dead bodies will fall
like manure on the ground,
like freshly cut grain after the reaper,
with no one to gather it.
23 This is what the Lord says.
The wise man should not boast in his wisdom.
The strong man should not boast in his strength,
nor the rich man in his riches.
24 Instead, let those who boast boast about this:
that they have understanding, and that they know me.
They know that I am the Lord,
who shows mercy, justice, and righteousness on earth,
for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.
25 Watch! The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all who cut their hair short[b] and who live in the wilderness.[c] Actually, these are all uncircumcised nations. And the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in their hearts.
10 But you have faithfully followed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfast endurance, 11 my persecutions, my sufferings—the kind that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the kind of persecutions I endured—and the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 Indeed, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 As for you, continue in the things you have learned and about which you have become convinced. You know from whom[a] you learned them 15 and that from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.